Monday, January 16, 2012

I know, you all thought I was all done Blogging about Disney. Nope. I left out a very large important piece.

The Food.

It also deserved it's own post. And as Einstein says, I love a story with Food in it. So here you go, some 'bare necessities' of some of the great foods of Disney World.

Whenever I think of the best food that I've had in Disney World, the same place comes to mind every time. The California Grill.

Located on top of the Contemporary hotel, they have a walkabout with a fantastic view of the Magic Kingdom. On our honeymoon, we made our reservations for about sunset, and ended up sampling foods of every possible course, including a souffle which took half an hour to make. So we found ourselves seated when the fireworks show went off at Epcot, and we could see them. It was lovely, as we went home, we were on the water when the Magic Kingdom fireworks went off. It was all dreadfully romantic, so when we had friends that went, we recommended the place. Mike and Kathleen went on their honeymoon, and they were there when the Magic Kingdom fireworks show went off, and they dimmed the restaurant lights, and pumped in the music, so if you opted not to go outside, you still had a great view of the fireworks. Last time we visited, we hired a sitter for the 3 kids, and went to a grownup date night dinner ourselves. It was Fabulous. There were no souffles, but there was sushi that was so good, Eric literally cried. I'm telling you, that's how good this food is! It's not cheap though.

This trip, my amazing fabulous Mother in law came over and watched all 5 kids! Alone. God Bless Her! And we 4 grownups got a date night. Once again, the California Grill did not disappoint. I took about 80 pictures of the castle at night, and the fireworks, and some of the food too.

Eric and I ordered a sushi sampler, and one roll. This one has scallops cooked and chilled with some sort of magic spicy sauce buried under crunchies in the corner of the plate. It was scrumptious. But it didn't make Eric cry. We must've had something different last time. Or maybe we're getting used to the phenomenal food here.

What really stole the show were our meals. Eric got Duck 2 ways. And they were both wonderful. I got a squash lasagna, with cheesy goodness and cranberries, it was like dessert for dinner! Mike got a wonderful whitefish, self-sustaining that I'd never heard of, on stir fried veggies tossed in miso broth that was quite yummy. Kathleen's meal, in my opinion was the best. Scallops. On a bed of au gratin potatoes. We didn't cry, but we were probably close.

We went outside for the fireworks show, and when we came in we got dessert. I got a wicked chocolate lava cake, that was not your everyday lava cake. And Eric and I got sushi. You think, what? Sushi for dessert. Well, our sushi pockets weren't full. And if you're going to be crazy and order more of something, then it should be something really good. We saw this roll, the dragon roll, as we were walking to the fireworks. So we got one for dessert. And it was Good.

After dinner, we decided to go to Magic Kingdom, without the kids (GASP!), and do a little shopping. Kathleen and I just thought this was hilarious.

Now that I'm home, there are some Non-California Grill foods, I wish we'd gotten a hold of recipes for. For one, 1900 Park Fare had a strawberry soup on their buffet, that was so good I had 2 bowls. One I shared with others (who went and got their own too) and the other, I didn't. ;)

Also, Mike picked this place for lunch the last day, Liberty Tavern, family style home cooking, wonderful. But they had these rolls, bread and honey butter that had Chris and I stuffing our faces with entire baskets full. I could go for a couple of those. Let me know if you know what's in them.

I don't know if I've mentioned this but DisneyWorld makes Great Hot Cocoa! And it's only like nescafe packets or something. But even when it wasn't freezing it was good. I'd go up to the Hospitality house and get a couple packets with hot water, and I was drinking it Every day. On one particularly cold night, as we were looking at the Christmas Light show at Hollywood studios, Mike got us cookies to eat with my cocoa. Super Cute!

We stopped for snacks in China at Epcot. We had the brilliant idea rather than have a proper lunch, we'd just get snacks all around the world. Well, left alone, Kathleen and I thought we could all split an alcohilated beverage while we were at it. 1 drink 4 ways, that's not going to get us rip roaring drunk in front of the kids.

But we didn't think of starting this grand idea until we were sitting down eating the Chinese snacks. By the time we thought of it, the food was gone. No pictures there. :) Only a little plum wine left.

Then on to Norway.

There's a problem of taking food pictures when children actually want to Eat the food.

So, since Kathleen and I picked out the Plum Wine in China, we let Eric and Mike go get the food in Norway. They forgot the Booze! So we let Eric go back. He picked this. It's called Aqvavit (aquavit) and it's a distilled spice beverage. Pretty sure it's made with anise and ass, because that's all we could taste. I like jagermeister, and that licorice drink the greeks drink, but this put hair on my chest. And I don't want hair on my chest. I pass it on. THEN Eric tells us he's not drinking, because of the Marathons, he's off alcohol the day before. Oh no! Kathleen and I took it upon ourselves to finish it.

Sure, it tasted a little better the more we drank of it, but it was still bad. But the grub was Good in Norway. Lox on bread, always a hit, and their "pretzels" were a cross between a danish and baklava. There was this rollup, almost like a tortilla with a cinnamon butter flavor. Quite yummy!

OK. Here's the problem of the goal of eating and drinking around the World. Particularly when you're Hungry. People want to actually Eat the food. That makes it less than pretty for photos. Then if I'm the photographer, I want to eat it too.The Mexican Nachos didn't last long, and the kids kept bugging us for the mango magarita. Again... China. Pictures didn't occur to us, until we were eating. Ay Carumba!

One of my favorite pictures of Eric from this trip. He's silly for the mexican mango soda. He enjoyed it thoroughly.

Mouse Mousse. Oreo cookies and whipped cream wickedness.

Let's call it a before and after.

Our last Official Day in the Magic Kingdom it was finally warm enough for Ice Cream. Mickey Chocolate Ice Cream Bars for All!

Hey, that bite was all chocolate!

OK, not really for all. We all shared the same bar. ;)

So Yummy So Yummy!

On our for real last day, our last stop was the ice cream stand. No trip complete with the Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Sandwich.

This time Mommy was a sucker, and got each boy his own sandwich.

And yet Mommy and Daddy ended up eating most of them. Amazingly enough, I had no net weight gain on the trip. Miracle!